That is if you have ~$1000 to spare. San Diego DNA sequencing company Illumina announced last month that they are now opening the door for a complete human genome sequence to the public by offering a whole-genome sequencing for under $1000.  This is done by the new HiSeq X Ten Sequencing System.  The announcement was a surprise to many in the field of genetics.  Link to the full article here.

I stumbled across this article on the NY Times website today, and it caught my eye.  It was written yesterday and is titled, “The Path to Reading a Newborn’s DNA Map.”  Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/business/the-path-to-reading-a-newborns-dna-map.html?ref=science.  As of now, doctors perform basic testing of infants for sickle-cell anemia, and other treatable diseases.  But they are trying to develop certain procedures to sequence the DNA of infants so that parents can be aware of certain diseases at birth.  As of now, the National Institutes of Health have given $5 million to four pilot grants in this research program.  However, as always, there are strong ethical considerations to be considered.  Is the doctor trying to play the role of God by doing this?  Is too much information dangerous?  What if the information is wrong, and decisions are made solely based on this inaccurate predications, which can harm the child?  It is a very interesting article, and I encourage y’all to read it!

Sea Phagers!

I don’t know about you guys, but I am ready for our phage genome to come back. We have been separated from our phage way too long. I think that this gene sequencing and bioinformatics work is so interesting and I hope to start on our genome soon.

On another note, this is a cool picture from Mars of Earth. We are always looking at the sky from our planet, but this time we get to see our planet from another. It is kinda cool how the earth has a blueish color because of the dominant polar molecule on our surface.

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2014/02/06/pale-blue-dot-amazing-nasa-photo-sees-earth-from-mars/

I found this article on ScienceDaily and thought it was really cool since we have been talking about biotechnology. These scientists have been studying the mechanisms that allow hantavirus, a virus contracted from rodent feces, into human cells in the respiratory system. Cases of hantavirus are very rare and localized here in the United States, but this virus has a 30-40% death rate among individuals that contract it. The main pathway this virus follows is linked with cholesterol transport in and out of cells. The studies done suggest that drugs created to lower cholesterol greatly reduce the susceptibility of respiratory cells to this virus. Lowering cellular cholesterol content seems to be an easily attainable preventative measure against this virus.

Here’s the link if you’re interested!

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140207083927.htm

Recent scientific articles confirm that shivering and being cold does indeed help burn fat. An article from Cell Press gives details about Irisin and FGF21, which are cold-induced endocrine activators of brown fat. There are several different types of fat in the human body, and while brown fat is not typically located in the areas that people are trying to lose weight, it can definitely contribute to fitness and overall health. In another article, scientists recommend increasing cold exposure to help promote the burning of brown fat, as one would work out to promote increased metabolic activity. These scientists believe that the burning of brown fat may increase the rate of burning of white fat.

So instead of complaining about this bitterly cold wind, let’s be thankful that we are getting in shape for spring break.

Here is an interesting summary of the article:

I was inspired by the presentation made in class about stem cells to do a little research on the topic. I found out that on January 29th, a new method for making stem cells was announced in the journal Nature.

Apparently, scientists can take cells from a mouse spleen and expose to them to an acidic environment. Upon doing so, these cells become pluripotent. This is very spectacular because scientists neither have to manipulate the nucleus or tinker with the translation process. This is a phenomenal discovery.

Read about it here: http://www.livescience.com/42926-new-method-for-making-stem-cells.html

So I saw this article and though it was really relevant to what we are learning this semester! The article explains that by wiping out people with inferior immune systems the Black Plague actually strengthened the immune systems of the population as a whole. It also may account for the current day differences between the immune systems of populations historically exposed to the Black Plague and those that were not.

http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/02/black-death-left-mark-human-genome?rss=1

Outside of our little world, there are these things call NTD’s (neglected tropical diseases). One of the most common ones is called leishmaniasis, which is contracted by a sandfly bite, which transfers parasites into one’s body. We don’t really have these sandflies on this continent, so we are pretty safe from this, but check it out…in addition to the disease itself, turns out there is an additional infection spread by a virus that has come to latch itself onto the parasites. The Leishmania RNA virus seems to be an amplifier of all the contracted symptoms from Leishmaniasis. I want so badly for there to be a way to make it so this is no longer an issue. The central American strain of protazoans seem to be becoming resistant to the most common treatment, Antimony. Maybe there is a way to engineer a phage that can kill those little protazoa: it could make a huge difference.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22919688

Hey guys!

I know we have spent a lot of time in class discussing the mechanisms and techniques of biotechnology, but I wanted to show you this video that really shows the practical medical implications of this technology. “Cracking Your Genetic Code” is a NOVA special from PBS that talks about how different bioinformatics and genomic research is being used in medicine today to help diagnose and treat genetic disorders. There is also a lot of the bioethics conversation incorporated into the video, so you get to see how this new technology may alter society and other aspects of life. It also goes through the history of some of the technology. All in all, this special is really great and well made. I watched it in AP Biology last year, and it is what really got me interested in genomics. It’s available online for free, and it’s only about an hour long. If you want to supplement what we are learning in class, I would recommend this video. Here is the link:

http://video.pbs.org/video/2215641935/

Enjoy! I hope you guys like it as much as I do!

So I was looking around at news articles this afternoon and I came across this article below. It is about how lack of sleep can accelerate cancer growth. Apparently, mice were injected with tumor cells. Some mice slept regularly, while others were kept awake. The mice who were kept awake showed significantly more tumor growth than those with regular sleep patterns. I think it is so interesting how sleep can have so many healing properties. This article is defiantly worth checking out.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/01/28/poor-sleep-quality-may-accelerate-cancer-growth-study-finds/

Recently, DNA from the wisdom tooth of a hunter-gatherer in a cave in Spain was analyzed and the data revealed some interesting new finds. The man exhibited a darker toned skin, although the exact shade is unpredictable due to many environmental factors. This is surprising, because it was thought that the Europeans of this time has already developed lighter skin. Furthermore, the man has blue eyes. The blue eye gene wasn’t thought to have developed for some time after this man lived. In many respects the analysis of this caveman’s DNA has changed the way we view people from the Neolithic time period. For more information about the DNA analysis you should definitely check out the article below.

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature12960.html

Ok, I don’t know what it is, but something about neurology is just absolutely captivating to me. The idea of a nerve working with a charge and being SO precise about it is just dumbfounding to me. I mean, how can nerves be that precise and consistent when they are working with a charge as tiny as -50 milliVolts? I mean in my high school robotics competition, we had voltage gradation for different parts of the robots that made it so they would only work within a 3 or 4 volt range. If the stuff that us humans make can only work within a precision of 3000-4000 mV and that seems stringent, how much more amazing is it that God can make something (and trillions of that something) that works very precisely at changes as small as this. I don’t know, but it’s amazing to me. Take a second to think about how wonderful this all is. I mean, how ridiculous it all is! Just saying, we’ve got amazing stuff we get to learn about and we are some of the only few in the world that will ever get the chance to look into stuff like this as their JOB. Don’t waste any opportunities, guys.

When we shared viruses the other day in class, we ran out of time before I had the chance to tell you all about the monkeypox virus. Made of double-stranded DNA, it is of the poxviridae family, putting it in the same family as cowpox and smallpox. This virus can affect animals, such as monkeys and prairie dogs, as well as humans. It can be transmitted through a bite or fluid contact, and its incubation period is ten to fourteen days long. It undergoes a lytic cycle for replication. While there have been very few cases of monkeypox in the US, it is something to watch out for while traveling in Africa.

I researched the polio virus last week. The polio virus is also called Poliomyelitis and it is in the genus Enterovirus. Being in the Enterovirus genus means that the polio virus is a relatively small virus, has a single stranded RNA genome, and thrives in the gastrointestinal tract. It occasionally attacks the nerves of the individual. The polio virus has been eradicated from the western hemisphere.

Here is a good website about the poliovirus:

http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2014/chapter-3-infectious-diseases-related-to-travel/poliomyelitis

I can’t wait for our genome to come back guys! So excited to start analyzing the genome.

(to the tune of Royals by Lorde)

I’ve never been an infection in the flesh

I put my DNA in amoebas of the Acanthamoeba genus

And I’m not proud of my assets,

With no ribosomes, only replication envy

But every virus is like sneezing, coughing, trippin’ in flu season

Weight loss, fever, look its AIDS,

We don’t care, we’ve got 1100 genes.

But virus is like fever, soreness, causing humans panic.

Headache, skin rash, infecting bacteria.

We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in their infection affair.

And we’ll never be royals.

It don’t run in our genes,

That kind of luxe just ain’t for us.

We crave a different kind of buzz.

Let me be your ruler,

You can call me queen Pandoravirus

And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule.

Let me live that fantasy.

My friend and I—we’ve cracked the code.

We count our micrometers on the way to the amoeba.

And everyone who knows us knows that we’re huge like this,

We didn’t come from era.

But every virus is like sneezing, coughing, trippin’ in flu season

Weight loss, fever, look its AIDS,

We don’t care, we’ve got 1100 genes.

But virus is like fever, soreness, causing humans panic.

Headache, skin rash, infecting bacteria.

We don’t care, we aren’t caught up in their infection affair.

And we’ll never be royals.

It don’t run in our genes,

That kind of luxe just ain’t for us.

We crave a different kind of buzz.

Let me be your ruler,

You can call me queen Pandoravirus

And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule.

Let me live that fantasy.

Ooh ooh oh

We’re bigger than they’ve ever dreamed,

And I’m in love with being queen.

Ooh ooh oh

Life is great without a care

We aren’t caught up in their infection affair.

And we’ll never be royals.

It don’t run in our genes,

That kind of luxe just ain’t for us.

We crave a different kind of buzz.

Let me be your ruler,

You can call me queen Pandoravirus

And baby I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule, I’ll rule.

Let me live that fantasy.